SAN FRANCISCO IS A TRANSIT FIRST CITY

San Francisco is a Transit First City. San Francisco also needs a Housing Element that is based on empirical data. Compounded the Housing Element should reflect the current impacts which are many. If the Planning Department really cared for the people of San Francisco is should have first had a good transportation document in place 3 years ago. On a parallel track is should have had a Housing Element complete with Empirical Data and based on contemporary adverse affects. It should have done some good outreach. It should have got the best input from the various neighborhoods. It failed the constituents of the City and County of San Francisco in addressing key issues linked to the Housing Element and the Transportation Document. The Transportation Document was under taken by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) which really should have been prepared by the San Francisco City Planning. The Housing Element prepared by City Planning lacks clear policy and is based on false principles. The City and County of San Francisco have an Ordinance termed the Precautionary Principle. I doubt the Planning Department has read the Precautionary Principle. As I have stated many times there are now many adverse impacts that demand a Housing Element based on a sound Environmental Impact Report. I have mentioned that since San Francisco is a Transit First City. The Planning Department failed to address transit issues. The burden was put on the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) who took a short cut and has not included Traffic Analysis linked to the many sites and areas that are inundated with very heavy traffic. The traffic document addresses some aspects but reading the document it falls short and begs the question as to why the Planning Department did not address many of the issues which the SFCTA transportation document makes some little attempt to address. It does not for example address the neighborhood character of the City and County of San Francisco. It addresses transportation issues in a general manner. It fails to address Safety and issues related to those who most need transportation the Disabled and the Elderly. The Negative Declaration linked to the Housing Element that the Planning Department wants us all the constituents of San Francisco to embrace is demeaning. San Francisco Planning Department has not done its homework. Now it wants to force the constituents to embrace an illegal document that bases its policies on false premises. It has no sound baseline. It takes a false baseline that was used in 1990 and tries to hide under the skirt of this previous false document. In 1990 the baseline was exceed by adding over 20,000 housing units. So this 1990 document was completely false. Using this already false document and relating it in a vague manner to 2004 does a double injustice. City Planning declared a Negative Declaration on the Housing Element so that we can get some money from the State to help the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA). The huge development plans that SFRA has in the pipe line require this Housing Element to be accepted by the State so that millions of dollars can be released. It is all about money. It is all about giving the evil and corrupt Marcia Rosen a green signal to destroy the neighborhood character and impact our over tasked infrastructure. In the interim Mark Leno is busy in Sacramento trying to push for legislation that will allow the present fake Housing Element be accepted so that the filthy rich developers can make money by accepting millions from the State of California. Those are now controlling Local Land Use on the State Level by introducing faulty legislation. This is a shame. We have over 900 miles of sewer line. Most of the sewer lines need to be replaced. In some areas the sewer lines are built of wood. In other areas the sewer lines are built with brick. In some areas we do have sewer pipes they are very old and the too small in diameter to carry the overload of sewer and in the raining season the added water from the runoff. Again and again in many parts of the City but more so in the Bayview Hunters Point Area the manholes spew with raw sewage. In some areas, all over San Francisco, the old sewer pipes are broken and the sewer either backups or spills into the ground. During the raining season it is common for raw sewage to run off the streets in the Bayview Hunters Point and in other areas too. Our sewer system was never built to receive raw sewage from Colma, Daly City, Burlingame, and Brisbane. Today all the raw sewage comes all the above mentioned cities come to the Phelps Raw Sewage Treatment Plant which is situated in a residential area in Bayview. Sophie Maxwell the dumb, ignorant, and very arrogant District 10 Supervisor is cognizant of this fact but does nothing about it. The above fact is never mentioned before the Board of Supervisors. How much money are we collecting from Colma, Burlingame, Brisbane, and Daly City? When will the Cross-town tunnel be built so sent the secondary effluents into the Pacific Ocean? An Environmental Impact Report is needed to address the above mentioned impacts and there is more. Recently we had a couple of major blackouts. Our transmission lines that carry electricity need maintenance and repairs. In many areas the City and County of San Francisco needs new Transmission Lines. We just cannot build thousands of homes and then think about how to provide these thousands of units with energy. A good EIR would address the sewer impacts. The EIR would address the Energy issues. The EIR would clearly address the increase in parking, pollution, and traffic congestion. The Precautionary Principle supports the premises that most everything should be in place and no major element should adversely impact the constituents of the City and County of San Francisco. In this case many major elements adversely impact over 80% of the constituents of the City and County of San Francisco. When will we stop using clean Hetch Hetchy water to flush our toilets? When will this City address this situation? We have two aging power plants each of them spew over 18 tons of toxins into the air. These toxins adversely affect all the constituents of San Francisco but more so the constituents who live in the Southeast Sector of San Francisco - foremost Bayview and Hunters Point. More diesel trucks ply on certain routes and all over the City and County of San Francisco then they did in 1990. More cars ply the roads today and one does not have to be a rocket scientist to understand this. Today more children and others suffer from Asthma and other respiratory diseases. Cancer and other serious ailments plague our constituents. These illnesses stem from a poorer Quality of Life and the City and County of San Francisco should demand an Environmental Impact Report. Two years ago 3 infants were taken to the hospital dead as a result of asthma. Quality of Life demand open space and clean air. Quality of life demands that our Bay does not suffer from half treated raw sewage, run off of mercury, lead, PCBs, toxic oil, and other toxins into the Bay. Today we really cannot eat the fish that one catches from the Bay. Often times the smog affects the air quality. Diesel trucks, dust, and other pathogens in the air affect our Quality of Life. It is baffling that San Francisco City Planning keeps talking about policies linked to the Housing Element. How can we talk about polices linked to land, water, and air which is polluted, adversely impacting constituents, and dare write some vague policy to address these very serious issues. At this rate we should plan the Housing Element that is due in the year 2007. For the simple fact that before the City and County of San Francisco City Planning has failed and more cannot be trusted. In the mean time the main culprits who run San Francisco City Planning should be told to go elsewhere. We have Amit Ghosh and Binder who are headstrong. We have San Francisco City Planning who has no scheduled timelines. Always addressing important issues at the eleventh hour. When San Francisco City Planning finds itself in a fix they try to get out of it the easy way out. The Negative Declaration with all the serious impacts going on is a slap in the face of the constituents of San Francisco. The various neighborhoods have not been consulted. Our Board of Supervisors (BOS) does not do their homework. None of them have read the various drafts Housing Element documentation. None of them have read the Transportation Document prepared by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority. If the fake Housing Element is sent to Sacramento we all will suffer. SFRA will build high-density units and will task our infrastructure. No where does the present Housing Element address in full the infrastructure, Energy Issues, Clean Waters Issues, Transportation Issues, Health Issues, Air Quality Issues, Pollution and a myriad of other relevant elements that affect the constituents of San Francisco. The fake Housing Element has a Significant Impact all over this great City and County of San Francisco. Let us embrace the Precautionary Principle that is a City Ordinance. Let us look at Quality of Life and a transit first city. Let us look at housing and preserve our neighborhoods. Let us not pander to developers and to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and a crook that heads it Marcia Rosen.

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